Justice Holder shares with us her insights about the role of the judiciary in promoting pro bono delivery.

Justice Janice Holder

There is the perception that members of the court or government employees cannot be involved in pro bono activities because of bias or conflict of interest. Can you speak a bit about your role on the bench and the types of pro bono activities that you’re involved with.

Initially, as Chief Justice, my role was to kick start the Supreme Court’s Access to Justice initiative in Tennessee. Our initiative coincided with that of the Tennessee Bar Association, which advanced our efforts. I see the Court’s role as the cheerleader for the Access to Justice community — to encourage pro bono, legal clinics, volunteers, and our law students in Tennessee. The entire Supreme Court is on board — it’s our first priority under our strategic plan.

We are also encouraging government employees to become involved in pro bono. Several years ago, the Tennessee General Assembly amended statutes to allow pro bono activities by government lawyers. The Supreme Court then modified its rules to provide guidance to lawyers employed as research assistants in the judicial branch. The Attorney General’s office also instituted rules to govern the pro bono activities of its lawyers. The Executive Branch has not yet developed rules and regulations for its lawyers, but pro bono is permitted by statute. In the past year, we have had several seminars for government lawyers to provide information about the types of pro bono they can do.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted a voluntary pro bono reporting process with a goal that each of at least 50% of all Tennessee attorneys provide an average of 50 hours of pro bono in 2013. Part of the reporting process will allow us to measure the increase in pro bono provided by government attorneys. In 2012, 47.20 % of Tennessee attorneys provided 689,835 hours of pro bono, an average of 84.23 per attorney.

What do you see as the greatest challenge for the judiciary with regard to promoting pro bono service?

There are so many challenges! The need is so overwhelming that we’re just scratching the surface. But I’m encouraged by what we are achieving in Tennessee. Our Faith and Justice Initiative has just been launched very successfully. I see that initiative as the future of legal clinics in Tennessee because it takes the clinics to the places where people in need are comfortable in seeking services — places of worship and community centers.

What encourages me so much right now is that the culture is changing. When I was a law student, there was no such thing as pro bono. It wasn’t something that law students thought about. Now there are so many clinics — even first-year law students are involved. I have a lot of interaction with law students because the University of Memphis Law School is just down the street, and I see pro bono becoming a passion for many of these students. To see them catch fire that early gives me hope that we’re developing a new group of lawyers who are even more passionate about pro bono than the current generation.

A recent ABA poll found that many attorneys cite lack of time as a barrier to pro bono work. What advice do you have for others — judges, attorneys, students — from your own experience in balancing work and pro bono activities?

In some respects, we have a lot of work to do in educating law firms and employers about providing an environment and culture that encourages employees to do pro bono work. I think it starts there.

As a young lawyer I did pro bono work, and I still remember those cases because they were some of the most interesting cases I handled. The response that you get from someone who truly needs legal services and, but for you, would not have received legal services is something you cannot replicate in any other aspect of your professional life. So once you do it, even though you think you don’t have the time, you tend to get pretty hooked. That’s when you start to remember why you went to law school — to help other people.

At its best, the Conference was a unique opportunity for solidarity, troubleshooting, and (re)imagination. Attorneys who have dedicated their careers to the privilege of serving low-income people came together, shared challenges and solutions, and put their collective wealth of knowledge and experience toward tackling the substantial unmet need for legal services. I heard elder law and domestic violence attorneys speak about preventative efforts to meet clients where they are by partnering with local community groups and conducting legal health “check-ups.” In addition, role-playing exercises with LGBTQ “clients” and an intricate poverty simulation allowed for more experiential learning.

While I gained insight from every panel I attended, the panels I found most exciting were those aimed at remedying root problems. For example, attorneys from legal aid in Eastern and Western Missouri discussed and elicited feedback on their community economic development programs. Rather than simply running triage with clients, these programs promote self-sufficiency by providing support to burgeoning nonprofits and entrepreneurs with the help of pro bono transactional attorneys. I was also thrilled to hear about the incredible successes of emerging veterans courts that treat the holistic needs of veterans and the resourceful use of pro bono financial experts to make the economic case for anti-poverty programs.

As a law student who is graduating in less than a week and facing my own set of challenges in the current job market, it was reenergizing to be reminded why I decided to pursue public interest law. In the face of sequestration, political kabuki, and what feels like unconscionable indifference to the suffering of the underclasses, public defenders, legal aid attorneys, and the social workers who make them look good remain some of the most dedicated, resilient problem-solvers I have encountered in my years of social justice advocacy.

The Conference closed with a dialogue on generational differences at work. Attorneys from across the age groups—Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists or Veterans—shared their defining life experiences and views on work and justice. While the dialogue illuminated intergenerational tensions, it also revealed a common definition of what makes a good leader and a willingness to work across generations to foster that leadership. The challenges we, as public interest attorneys, face are great but so is our commitment to our clients, our collective resolve to better serve them, and our vision for a more just future. For me, the overarching message of the 2013 Equal Justice Conference was that times are tough but hope is on the horizon so long as we continue to adapt and think big.

–

Emily Danker-Feldman is graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a dual degree in law and social work. She went to law school after working as a Research Associate with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco, CA and has worked for the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Missouri for the past year and a half. Emily hopes to continue serving people and families impacted by incarceration.

A recent ABA report showed that approximately 60% of attorneys under the age of 35 expressed interest in taking on more pro bono work, but many cited inadequate training or lack of knowledge as a potential hurdle. What resources does your firm provide to new or young attorneys to support them in pro bono work?

We hear this not only from younger lawyers, but also from lawyers in practice areas that don’t naturally lend themselves to traditional pro bono. Divorce/family law cases are a big pro bono demand and many attorneys don’t have this background. We do our best to try to reach out and work with volunteer lawyer programs and Legal Aid to get our attorneys into trainings. One thing we haven’t done yet, but are working on, is to bring that training in house. We have done it for our transactional pro bono program – we have in-house video training, forms on our intranet, mentors, etc. and it’s turned out to be a great success. We are hoping we can expand that to other areas of practice within the firm.

Many attorneys think they don’t have the time to take on pro bono cases – — what advice do you have from your own experience about balancing your work, pro bono activities, and personal commitments?

Before I took on this job, I was a labor and employment lawyer for 20 years. I was doing pro bono work then, taking on post-conviction death penalty cases – so it can be done! I think you have to have the mindset that it’s just another piece of your practice. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a lawyer say that they can’t take on any more work from billable client because they don’t have time. So it’s really just a mindset – if you think of it like you think of every other case you have, it will happen.

Also, there are pro bono opportunities of every size. You don’t have to take on a death penalty case, or even a divorce case –there are all sorts of opportunities. I think that’s the huge benefit in the firm having someone do this job – most lawyers want to do pro bono but they don’t want to or don’t have time to go find it. But for most lawyers, if you present them with an opportunity and say, this needs doing, they will do it.

Describe the firm’s pro bono practice and your role as the shareholder.

Our firm is geographically diverse – we have about 650 lawyers in 18 offices spread across the Southeast. I work with some offices that have 100 or more lawyers, and others that have only a handful. We’ve had our current, formal pro bono structure for 5 years – I have been in my current position that whole time. Prior to this structure, we had a committee of people who had their own practices, but we found we couldn’t make the progress we wanted to because the people on the committee didn’t have the time required to bring in opportunities or to try to match lawyers’ skills and interests. So that’s what I do – I go into our communities and even nationally to find opportunities for lawyers to do things that they feel passionate about and that match their skill set (or even take them out of their comfort zones). I find out what our lawyers want and then go out and find opportunities.

What is the biggest challenge you see to the delivery of pro bono services?

Being in the Southeastern part of the country, our challenges may be different than in other areas of the country. Everyone has funding problems, it’s universal, but in most of the South there’s not a developed pro bono culture. That lack of a pro bono culture is combined with a lot of population being in the rural parts of the states. In all the states where our firm has offices, there are concentrations of people who need pro bono help, but huge swaths of these states are very underserved. They have very few lawyers and no access to pro bono programs.

What steps have you taken to address this challenge?

This is an ongoing challenge but we have done some work in this area. In Tennessee, some Baker Donelson attorneys and IT staff developed Online Tennessee Justice – it was rolled out by the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the Access to Justice Commission last year. It’s an online secure web portal that people can access from anywhere they have internet access; they can qualify for services through income qualification online. If they qualify, they can post their legal problem and volunteer lawyers will get on and take questions and can interact with the client. This service has given a lot of people in rural areas access to legal assistance, and has also brought in a lot of lawyers who weren’t volunteering before – in house lawyers who may not have had time, retired attorneys, stay at home moms, etc. This program is being licensed to other states’ Access to Justice Commissions without charge and will be implemented soon in several additional states. We think this can really be a game changer for legal assistance in rural areas.

Check back tomorrow for Part II of our interview, where Ms. Borden addresses recent trends in pro bono delivery and offers advice from her years of service.

Volunteer attorneys, law firms and corporate law departments have enhanced the lives of individuals and families by developing, supporting and participating in medical-legal partnerships (MLP), an innovative legal services delivery model that improves the lives of patients and builds healthier communities.

To recognize the critical role of pro bono partners in MLP, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service established the
ABA Outstanding Medical-Legal Partnership Pro Bono Advocacy Award.

The recipient of the 2013 ABA Outstanding Medical-Legal Partnership Pro Bono Advocacy Award is Maureen Darrow of MetLife and was presented at the
Annual Medical-Legal Partnership Summit in Bethesda, MD on April 12, 2013.

Maureen (ctr) with Kelly Scott (l), Director of the ABA Medical-Legal Partnerships Pro Bono Project and JoHanna Flacks (r), Legal Director at Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston
(Photo credit: Becky Crowder)

 ____________________________________________

“The lawyer is in . . . and she does house calls.”

Ms. Darrow’s MLP pro bono home and hospice-based project offers a way for low-income patients of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to make thoughtful decisions, memorialized in legally effective documents that allow patients to have peace of mind. Knowing that they have planned for the most difficult outcome, patients can now focus on hope and healing.

Thank you to Ms. Darrow for your significant contribution and inspiring dedication to serving low-income cancer patients through MLP pro bono during the most critical times in their lives.

Build your community

We’ve all heard the exhortation to network and there’s no better place than EJC. The group that will gather in St. Louis is a wonderful and welcoming community of leaders who are committed to helping the next generation of advocates navigate the field– take advantage of the offer! View your time at EJC as an opportunity to both learn from your experienced colleagues and to start building a professional network that will help you achieve your programmatic goals.

Also take the time to get to know others new to the field, as these are the folks who you will be working with over the course of your career.

Ps. Don’t forget your business cards!

Plan for the present – and the future

If you’re new to your position, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of information thrown your way. Make sure to review the agenda beforehand, and strategize how best to utilize your time at the conference. Attend sessions that will be helpful for your current projects, but also sit in on panels that may provide information to help you prepare for work to come.

Keep the inspiration alive

You’ll likely be hit by inspiration several times during the conference. Don’t let these great ideas get away! Take the time at the end of each day – or the weekend – to reflect and debrief. Jot down your thoughts to share later with your colleagues and help you develop an action plan. You’ll be happy you did when you return to your office and find yourself back in the swing of your daily tasks and responsibilities.

See you in St. Louis!

Describe the Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) and your role within the organization.

VLP was founded in 1988 by a group of private attorneys and members of the local bar association. I was asked to head the organization. Because the project was created by private attorneys, they had – and continue to have – substantial ownership over the work of the project; that’s important when thinking about a pro bono program.

Over the years, VLP has grown to provide a range of civil legal services. We have monthly “batch” clinics for divorce cases. Pro bono attorneys are assigned a group of cases with similar issues. We have a full-time paralegal who helps the attorney with the paperwork and background research. This allows VLP to have four family law clinics a month that reaches roughly 44 people.

The cases we try to schedule for the “batch” clinics are ones that are not contested and can be closed relatively easily. Funny story: for the first clinic we held, almost all the spouses were in jail. We thought the cases would be closed relatively easily, but they all filed pro se answers, so it ended up being more complicated than we had anticipated.

We also handle one-on-one cases, where the issues are more complicated and can’t be handled at a clinic.

We keep a running total of how many cases are closed each year. Since VLP was founded, we estimate approximately $14 million dollars in pro bono services have been donated and we’ve closed about 27,000 cases. We’ve done this with a staff of three (prior to 2012, we had a staff of two).

What is the greatest lesson you learned about managing a pro bono organization or pro bono work generally ? What is the greatest challenge?

Greatest lesson is that in most instances when you ask an attorney to assist you, they will. Most attorneys will tell you that if they haven’t done pro bono work it’s because they haven’t been asked.

The biggest challenge is the variety of cases. We have centralized intake for a 32 county region and have been working to try to figure out how to mainstream the system to try to get the relevant ones straight to VLP. A pro bono program should be a complement to Legal Aid – we take on cases that Legal Aid wouldn’t be able to handle because they don’t have the staff.

A recent ABA report showed that approximately 60% of attorneys under the age of 35 expressed interest in taking on more pro bono work. What advice do you have for pro bono managers and programs to help recruit young attorneys?

You need to ask them. We do cold calls to our entire directory. We also send out e-mail blasts. Right now we have an agreement with Habitat for Humanity because anyone who gets a mortgage through them needs to get a will. We will be holding a session where pro bono attorneys help draft wills. We sent out an e-mail blast requesting assistance – we only needed 6 attorneys but received interest from 20.

In your 25 years at VLP, what changes have you seen to delivery of pro bono services?

These days, we get a lot of young attorneys asking to help assist with cases because so few of them have jobs – these attorneys require mentorship and training.

Final words?

I really enjoy working with the legal community – I have so much respect for attorneys and paralegals who are so committed to helping people gain access to justice.

To nominate a medical-legal partnership pro bono partner you will need to complete the nomination form and submit supporting materials via email to Kelly Scott at kelly.scott@americanbar.org by March 21, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. CST.

Nomination Form and Guidelines can be found at www.medlegalprobono.org.

Please include MLP Pro Bono Award in the subject line.

Dan Pallotta discusses how our aversion to high overhead makes it difficult for nonprofits to fulfill their missions. He argues that because we judge the success of nonprofits by how little money they spend, we place imitations on how organizations can recruit talent, spread the word about their work, scale their impact, and ultimately solve the social issues they were created to address.

http://idealistcareers.org/ted-talk-is-it-time-for-us-to-rethink-how-we-support-nonprofits/

This month’s OneJustice contest is Justice Karaoke! What songs can you think of that relate to themes of justice? Head on over to the OneJustice blog and share your favorites.